We plan to investigate the chemical reactions involved in the degradation of lysine and 5-aminovalerate by anaerobic bacteria using enzymatic and tracer methods. In studying lysine degradation we plan specifically to determine whether nonsporulating anaerobic and facultative bacteria, such as Fusobacterium nucleatum, which degrade lysine anaerobically, utilize the same reactions used by clostridia. Since sporulating and nonsporulating anaerobic bacteria use entirely different reactions to degrade glutamate to identical products, the same may be true for organisms decomposing lysine. We plan to prepare cell-free extracts of suitable nonsporulating, lysine-utilizing bacteria and examine them for key enzymes in lysine degradation such as L-lysine aminomutase and 3-keto-5-amino-hexanoate cleavage enzyme. If those enzymes are absent, we shall undertake to establish the nature of the enzymatic reactions used by nonsporulating anaerobes for lysine degradation. In studing 5-aminovalerate degradation we plan to isolate anaerobic bacteria that utilize this amino acid and determine whether the initial enzymatic steps in its degradation are similar to those utilized by other clostridia in the anaerobic oxidation of ornithine; these involve the reaction sequence: ornithine yields 2, 5-diaminopentanoate yields 2-amino-5-ketopentanoate yields acetyl CoA plus alanine. Reactions involved in the reduction of 5-aminovalerate to valeric acid will also be determined.